April 2021 - 22

Autonomous sprayer available for orchards
By Crystal Nay
Western Editor
Growers know automation and
mechanization is well on its way,
and GUSS Automation, LLC is
autonomously driving its way through
orchards and showing the robots have
already arrived.
The idea behind the global
unmanned spray system (GUSS)
began percolating in late 2007, before
the technology was able to meet
inspiration's demands, but began
catching up in 2014, allowing the
creators of GUSS to work with more
viable vehicle guidance technology
and thus create prototypes. GUSS was
officially made available commercially
to growers in 2019, and there are
currently about 80 units running in the
U.S. and Australia.
The machine in its basic concept
is a self-propelled sprayer, but at its
core it's a move in orchard tech that
will help improve efficiency, safety by
reducing chemical exposure for farm
workers and tractor accidents, and the
reduction of labor costs for growers.
The unit is fully autonomous, with
no ability to operate it like a standard
tractor because there is no station at
all for a driver. Instead, one person
supervises the machine - and can
actively monitor up to eight GUSS
sprayers - from the safety of outside
the field. It has its own engine and
drives itself based on a map saved in an
onboard computer. The map, combined
with an array of sensors, allows GUSS
to make driving decisions based on this
information, including stopping in the
field if it encounters an obstacle.
" It's not that the guy sitting in
his pickup is actively controlling
them; he's not using a remote and
driving them. He's basically there
for monitoring purposes, " said Gary
A GUSS unit sprays an almond canopy while driving autonomously. Photos: GUSS Automation
Thompson, chief operations officer at
GUSS Automation.
For a sprayer that makes a lot of its
own decisions while out in the field,
monitoring can seem fairly simple
from the tailgate of a pickup, an offsite
office or a beach vacation. But while
the machine is autonomous, decisions
for changes can still be made on the
fly, such as the vehicle's speed, engine
RPM, the pressure on the pump and
flow rate of the application.
" While the sprayers are driving,
commands can be sent to change
things to dial in the spray and get
the accuracy as good as possible, "
Thompson said.
GUSS works with either a cellular
connection, which is ideal, or radio
frequency. Cellular provides a much
stronger connectivity and allows for
location independence. However, for
those areas that are still hard to reach
with cell coverage, GUSS defaults
to radio frequency, which is limited
to line of sight, but also allows for
operation in areas that still experience
challenges with insufficient cell signal.
Using the satellite imagery of a field,
a grower can see the location of every
GUSS sprayer, as well as data specific
to each machine, from engine and
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April 2021

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